Awesome Banner, one of an impressive six 2-year-old debut winners for these connections locally over the course of about a month when he lowered the 4 1/2-furlong track record to :51.07 with a 9 3/4-length romp June 5, was hammered down to favoritism despite the time off and did not disappoint. Hustled to the front by Jose Caraballo, the bay doled out splits of :22.10 and :44.87 with Noholdingback Bear and Sheikh of Sheiks in hot pursuit at the top of the stretch. Still with plenty left in the reserves, he kicked away impressively to keep his record unblemished.
“This is a brilliant colt,” offered Caraballo. “I think he's going to have a long career ahead of him. He is a very smart horse. Anything you ask him to do, he'll do it. I think he'll go longer. He's a fast horse, but he's not a speed horse, a crazy horse. He's very relaxed. The few times I've got on him, he's been very sensible, very smart. Nothing bothers him. He's very smart.”
Trainer Stan Gold revealed that his charge had been sidelined by a knee chip after his debut.
“He got the chip the first time after we breezed him after he broke his maiden,” Gold explained. “He showed something was wrong, we X-rayed him and it was there. There was no question involved, it was 'fix it.' You just go on, you don't think about those things. It would have been nice to have him for the Sire Stakes, but we did pretty well in the Sire Stakes and now we have a fresh horse with a bright future.”
Gold and Fred Brei's Jacks or Better annexed the $500,000 Florida Stallion In Reality S. with Fellowship (Awesome of Course) and ran one-two in the $300,000 Florida Stallion Susan's Girl S. with Ballet Diva (Hear No Evil) and Silent Prayer (Brooks 'n Down) in the fall.
As for what could be next for Awesome Banner, Gold said, “Because of his demeanor I don't think distance is going to be a problem. He's sprinting because we're training him to sprint and we're riding him to sprint but he's never shown any problem to do what you want with. Certainly we're going to try to stretch him out.”
He added, “I think this was more impressive [than his debut] because [at] 4 1/2 furlongs, sometimes horses run great and they never run back to it. The track record that he broke was broken the year before, and it's always at a time of year when the rain stopped, the track is dry, everything's fast and everyone's running. It's hard to gauge with a 2-year-old, but the way they do it is more important than when you look up there at the clock. He did it so effortlessly and came back and trained the same way and ran back to it.”
A second-generation Brei homebred, Awesome Banner is out of a half to MSW Scrubs (Dr. Caton). He has a newly turned 2-year-old full brother, and a yearling half-sister by Ontario-based Harris Tweed.
Saturday, Gulfstream Park
HUTCHESON S.-GIII, $100,000, GP, 1-2, 3yo, 6f, 1:09.57, ft.
1–#@AWESOME BANNER, 116, c, 3, by Awesome of Course
1st Dam: Miranda Stands, by Zamindar
2nd Dam: Record Stands, by American Standard
3rd Dam: On Record, by Florida State
O/B-Jacks or Better Farm Inc. (FL); T-Stanley I. Gold; J-Jose C.
Caraballo. $60,760. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $92,260. Werk
Nick Rating: A. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Noholdingback Bear, 116, c, 3, Put It Back–Pleasant Quality,
by Elusive Quality. ($25,000 Ylg '14 KEEJAN). O-Bear Stables,
Ltd.; B-Jerry Jamgotchian (KY); T-Michael P. De Paulo. $19,600.
3–Sheikh of Sheikhs, 120, c, 3, Discreetly Mine–Homesteader,
by Pioneering. ($50,000 Ylg '14 KEESEP; $330,000 2yo '15
EASMAY). O-Abdullah Saeed Almaddah; B-Manuel Andrade
(FL); T-Wesley A. Ward. $9,800.
Margins: 4 3/4, 1, 1HF. Odds: 1.30, 3.20, 2.20.
Also Ran: While Ye May, Danbury, Full Salute, Union Grace.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
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